Yesterday (Wednesday) in the evening Carrie had to go up to Fife to watch the Lareau kids. I did not accompany her. Instead, I stayed home and mnowed the lawn with the lawn mnower that I now own! See, earlier in the day (after I took Carrie to work after lunch) I went and filled up a gas canister with some gas. I then put that gas into the lawn mnower so as it would actually work.
In the early evening I mnowed the entire front lawn, the strip of land on the other side of the sidewalk, and about ten square feet in the backyard. That was about all I could do; the grass was so tall that the mnower's bag filled up after just a few feet, and I finally had to stop when the "yard waste" trash can filled up. I took a photo of it all with my phone, but my phone doesn't seem to be Mac compatible or something; I can't get photos off of it and onto my 'puter here. You'll just have to trust me.
Umm... after that I was sniffly like crazy due to my allergy of freshly-cut grass. It's actually a very mild allergy, but I was exposed to a LOT of freshly-cut grass, so I was real sniffly.
I watched the Ghost Hunters marathon. Jason and Grant chose their favorite episodes, so it was only ones with really good stuff in 'em. That was cool. I also finished cleaning all the dishes in the kitchen. See, I'm trying this new thing where I wash dishes as they get dirty instead of letting them pile up. We'll see how long I can keep it up, but it's working pretty well so far.
This is Chris dot com
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Mnowing the Lawn
posted by Christopher at 11:31 PM 
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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Unhealthy
Yesterday (Tuesday) for most of the day I felt... just off. I'm fairly confident that all the horribly unhealthy food I ate over Memorial Weekend caught up with me, 'cause my body felt like crap and it didn't help my brain any.
I find it really frustrating when my body gets in such a state that it affects my thought processes.
Anyhoo, there were some good things about yesterday. In the afternoon Carrie & I went to Mandolin Café, where to our delighted surprise we discovered our friend Mandi had just started to work—it was, in fact, her first day! She dyed her hair dark and it looks really cute on her.
The reason we were there was because I was meeting a charming pair of ladies (one of whom is an unabashed Trekkie) who need a logo and a website for a business they're starting up. Hey, those are the services that I provide! Coincidence? I think not. We had a very good meeting and I'm looking forward to coming up with some cool stuff for them.
While I did that Carrie took Lawrence to the DMV so he could get his learner's permit. Unfortunately none of them knew that you needed THREE pieces of ID if you're an out-of-stater. Whoops! All that time waiting at the DMV for nothing. I ended up walking home from Mandolin because they were still down there. But it was a very nice day (just on the verge of being too hot but not quite there) and Mandolin is just under a mile from my house (about .8 miles), so it was a nice walk.
After I took Carrie to the Bead Factory to teach her evening class I watched V for Vendetta (Two-Disc Special Edition)
(which I'm borrowing from my co-worker). Quick review: I did like it quite a bit. I didn't mind the change of focus at all. There were only two things that bothered me, and one of them was just because I've read the comic, and they didn't even have my favorite scene from the comic in the movie! 3 or 3½ stars.
After the movie (and partly inspired by it) I made a dedicated effort to get cracking and get over my off-ness. I cleaned a tonne of dishes. I did some WordPress research for another client of mine (though nothing terribly fruitful came of it). After Carrie came home I made dinner (I hadn't eaten any yet) of shrimp gyoza and mixed vegetables with a splash of soy sauce. Much healthier than my other recent meals!
We went to bed and I typed up my movie review of Hot Fuzz. It is now available for y'all to read! You should read it now. NOW!
I find it really frustrating when my body gets in such a state that it affects my thought processes.
Anyhoo, there were some good things about yesterday. In the afternoon Carrie & I went to Mandolin Café, where to our delighted surprise we discovered our friend Mandi had just started to work—it was, in fact, her first day! She dyed her hair dark and it looks really cute on her.
The reason we were there was because I was meeting a charming pair of ladies (one of whom is an unabashed Trekkie) who need a logo and a website for a business they're starting up. Hey, those are the services that I provide! Coincidence? I think not. We had a very good meeting and I'm looking forward to coming up with some cool stuff for them.
While I did that Carrie took Lawrence to the DMV so he could get his learner's permit. Unfortunately none of them knew that you needed THREE pieces of ID if you're an out-of-stater. Whoops! All that time waiting at the DMV for nothing. I ended up walking home from Mandolin because they were still down there. But it was a very nice day (just on the verge of being too hot but not quite there) and Mandolin is just under a mile from my house (about .8 miles), so it was a nice walk.
After I took Carrie to the Bead Factory to teach her evening class I watched V for Vendetta (Two-Disc Special Edition)
(which I'm borrowing from my co-worker). Quick review: I did like it quite a bit. I didn't mind the change of focus at all. There were only two things that bothered me, and one of them was just because I've read the comic, and they didn't even have my favorite scene from the comic in the movie! 3 or 3½ stars. After the movie (and partly inspired by it) I made a dedicated effort to get cracking and get over my off-ness. I cleaned a tonne of dishes. I did some WordPress research for another client of mine (though nothing terribly fruitful came of it). After Carrie came home I made dinner (I hadn't eaten any yet) of shrimp gyoza and mixed vegetables with a splash of soy sauce. Much healthier than my other recent meals!
We went to bed and I typed up my movie review of Hot Fuzz. It is now available for y'all to read! You should read it now. NOW!
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Labels: Life, Movies, Restaurants, Updates
posted by Christopher at 11:56 PM
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Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Any entomologist out there?
I recently found that there is some kind of weird, foaming insect in the parsley plant next to the house. When I dug through the foam and found said insect, it was the cutest little thing: about 3mm long, bright yellow-green, generally beetle-shaped, with two black pinpoints for eyes. I have no idea what it is/was (they're also very fragile in the proto state I found it in). Here's a photo of the foam:
I just find it very curious.
I just find it very curious.Labels: Pictures
posted by Christopher at 10:32 PM
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A Wonderful Weekendly of Deliciously Horrible Food
It all started on Sunday. Carrie & I had originally planned to go lawn mower shopping in the morning, but we slept in some instead. I don't remember what exactly happened for lunch, though I feel that something did. Hmm... I'll have to ask Carrie when she gets home.
Anyhoo, then it was off to Fools Play practice. After that I stopped at Fred Meyer and continued on to the Tarbet house where there was a barbecue going. I took this absolutely adorable picture:
You may be able to tell by the photo that it was plenty windy out. It was a might bit cold as well! Fortunately Jay had the outdoor fireplace thing going pretty well. So well, in fact, that we made s'mores in it. Soon we will have one of those things for ourselves... plans, plans...
So I ate a hamburger, a hot dog, and some chips and a couple of brownie bites.
Linnea's brother brought over his Wii (he's an even bigger geek than I am), so after the food settled a little bit I played some Wii Tennis and Wii Golf vs Jay. Then I played some Wii Bowling with Lena.
It's sideways but I'm too unconcerned to fix it. Just tilt your head. Lena's pretty good at bowling! But then after that we played Wii Boxing, and that little 4-year-old girl whooped me but good. She's frighteningly good at Boxing. I finally managed to beat her once, but I had to really, really work at it. Whew!
When we got home it was before 9:00, but as soon as we got out of the car I felt something inside of me go away and I became instantly, unabashedly sleepy. I went to bed and fell asleep and didn't get up until the next morning.
Carrie had to work on Monday, but I did not. In the morning I drove to a few places and found the best price/quality ratio on a new lawn mower. I guess I should say a first new lawn mower, because it's the first one I've ever actually owned. Pretty exciting. I got it at Home Depot. I had the sense to ask for help getting it off the shelf but not getting it into my car, but I manned up and stuffed it in there all by myself. I a big boy now!
It was much easier getting it out of the car and dragging it up the stairs than it was putting it into the car.
At noon I went up north to Grandma K's place for a big barbecue they were having for Memorial Day. I had a hamburger and a hot dog and a bag of chips. And an ice cream bar for dessert. They had a live band, the Cow Chips. They did old cowboy/ragtime type of songs. Stuff that Gene Autrey would sing (and did).
I came home and assembled the lawn mower and filled it up with oil, though not gas.
Then after Carrie got off of work we were picked up by Christine and Lawrence and we all went to Jefferson park just to hang out in the nice weather. We played some frisbee and no-net badminton (with extremely short racquets).
They're so cute!
A while into that we were joined by Melissa. Then a while after that we all started getting hungry, so we went down to The Spar and had fish and chips. Well, I had fish and chips. And so did Carrie. Other people had other things, like burgers and chicken fingers. But they missed out, 'cuase Spar fish & chips are some of the best in T-town. Anyway, Travis joined us there as well.
By the time we got home it was pretty late, but I still did an hour's worth of work on stuff that I needed to work on. Then I went to bed.
So over the course of the weekend I ate several hot dogs and several hamburgers, and some fried fish. It was all rather tasty, but I am not feeling at all healthy right now.
Anyhoo, then it was off to Fools Play practice. After that I stopped at Fred Meyer and continued on to the Tarbet house where there was a barbecue going. I took this absolutely adorable picture:
You may be able to tell by the photo that it was plenty windy out. It was a might bit cold as well! Fortunately Jay had the outdoor fireplace thing going pretty well. So well, in fact, that we made s'mores in it. Soon we will have one of those things for ourselves... plans, plans...So I ate a hamburger, a hot dog, and some chips and a couple of brownie bites.
Linnea's brother brought over his Wii (he's an even bigger geek than I am), so after the food settled a little bit I played some Wii Tennis and Wii Golf vs Jay. Then I played some Wii Bowling with Lena.
It's sideways but I'm too unconcerned to fix it. Just tilt your head. Lena's pretty good at bowling! But then after that we played Wii Boxing, and that little 4-year-old girl whooped me but good. She's frighteningly good at Boxing. I finally managed to beat her once, but I had to really, really work at it. Whew!When we got home it was before 9:00, but as soon as we got out of the car I felt something inside of me go away and I became instantly, unabashedly sleepy. I went to bed and fell asleep and didn't get up until the next morning.
Carrie had to work on Monday, but I did not. In the morning I drove to a few places and found the best price/quality ratio on a new lawn mower. I guess I should say a first new lawn mower, because it's the first one I've ever actually owned. Pretty exciting. I got it at Home Depot. I had the sense to ask for help getting it off the shelf but not getting it into my car, but I manned up and stuffed it in there all by myself. I a big boy now!
It was much easier getting it out of the car and dragging it up the stairs than it was putting it into the car.
At noon I went up north to Grandma K's place for a big barbecue they were having for Memorial Day. I had a hamburger and a hot dog and a bag of chips. And an ice cream bar for dessert. They had a live band, the Cow Chips. They did old cowboy/ragtime type of songs. Stuff that Gene Autrey would sing (and did).
I came home and assembled the lawn mower and filled it up with oil, though not gas.
Then after Carrie got off of work we were picked up by Christine and Lawrence and we all went to Jefferson park just to hang out in the nice weather. We played some frisbee and no-net badminton (with extremely short racquets).
They're so cute!A while into that we were joined by Melissa. Then a while after that we all started getting hungry, so we went down to The Spar and had fish and chips. Well, I had fish and chips. And so did Carrie. Other people had other things, like burgers and chicken fingers. But they missed out, 'cuase Spar fish & chips are some of the best in T-town. Anyway, Travis joined us there as well.
By the time we got home it was pretty late, but I still did an hour's worth of work on stuff that I needed to work on. Then I went to bed.So over the course of the weekend I ate several hot dogs and several hamburgers, and some fried fish. It was all rather tasty, but I am not feeling at all healthy right now.
Labels: Fools Play, Life, Pictures, Restaurants, Video Games
posted by Christopher at 8:39 PM
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Sunday, May 27, 2007
Maim-more-ial Day Bleak-end
Yesterday (Saturday) Carrie & I did not sleep in. Well, we slept in about ten minutes longer than we were s'posed to, but we were still up and going before 9:00 in the AM. We drove over to Cat's house where we met up with her, Melissa, and Heather. Then all of us went over to the Gig Harbor Farmer's Market.
It's a nice little market, with about 80% of the vendors providing potted growing pretty/tasty things. Carrie & I ended up getting three tomato plants. Cat got a whole bunch of stuff, including a gigantic bag of horse manure. I also got an Onion Dog, which is a polish sausage wrapped in fried bread and covered with sauteéd onions. I got the same thing last year when we went to the Gig Harbor Farmer's Market. It's still very tasty.
On our way home we stopped at a Big K to look over lawn mowers. They only had two models, one with a bag and one without. We didn't buy anything, because we want to do some more comparison shopping first.
I made some Mandarin chicken for lunch, and then a short while later it was time for me to head down to the final Fools Play workshop of the season. Then Mike & I went and got some phud Thai at Mekong in downtown O-town. Then it was back to the theater for setup and performance of Fools Play Rasslin' League presents May Meleé: Maim-more-ial Day Bleak-end.
We tried to keep this one tighter and more focused than the last one, and it worked really well; it was about 40 minutes shorter. The only characters who didn't show up were Incredible Bastard, Huggernaut, and Beekeeper (which is a shame because it was the last time he had a chance to show up). Once again Shooting Star won the championship, only to have to give it up due to having a severely broken neck.
Afterwards I went out to Rib Eye. Becky took this frightening photo of me and Lacey:
That is not appealing! I look like a crazyman.
An audience member I hadn't seen in a while was there, and off-handedly mentioned a Fools Play T-shirt they'd gotten in 7th grade. I'm old!
In somewhat-related news, I learned yesterday that two people I know had benign canker things instead of the life-threatening kind. Good news!
It's a nice little market, with about 80% of the vendors providing potted growing pretty/tasty things. Carrie & I ended up getting three tomato plants. Cat got a whole bunch of stuff, including a gigantic bag of horse manure. I also got an Onion Dog, which is a polish sausage wrapped in fried bread and covered with sauteéd onions. I got the same thing last year when we went to the Gig Harbor Farmer's Market. It's still very tasty.
On our way home we stopped at a Big K to look over lawn mowers. They only had two models, one with a bag and one without. We didn't buy anything, because we want to do some more comparison shopping first.
I made some Mandarin chicken for lunch, and then a short while later it was time for me to head down to the final Fools Play workshop of the season. Then Mike & I went and got some phud Thai at Mekong in downtown O-town. Then it was back to the theater for setup and performance of Fools Play Rasslin' League presents May Meleé: Maim-more-ial Day Bleak-end.
We tried to keep this one tighter and more focused than the last one, and it worked really well; it was about 40 minutes shorter. The only characters who didn't show up were Incredible Bastard, Huggernaut, and Beekeeper (which is a shame because it was the last time he had a chance to show up). Once again Shooting Star won the championship, only to have to give it up due to having a severely broken neck.
Afterwards I went out to Rib Eye. Becky took this frightening photo of me and Lacey:
That is not appealing! I look like a crazyman.An audience member I hadn't seen in a while was there, and off-handedly mentioned a Fools Play T-shirt they'd gotten in 7th grade. I'm old!
In somewhat-related news, I learned yesterday that two people I know had benign canker things instead of the life-threatening kind. Good news!
Labels: Fools Play, Life, Pictures
posted by Christopher at 9:20 AM
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Saturday, May 26, 2007
Cookout and Taverns
Yesterday (Friday) Carrie had lunch with work stuff, so I ate by myself. Then I went to the Fred Meyer and bought some sundries and variousities.
Carrie was brought home by someone (not me) and she had me go back out to Safeway and the liquor store for some others and varietals. Then we packed up a whole grip of stuff and headed out to Point Defiance park to barbeque! Or barbecue. Or Bar-B-Que. Or Bar-B-Q. Or BBQ. Howsoever you'd like to spell it, we did it.
We were joined by Cat, Heather, Christine, Melissa, and Leilani, and later on Heather's Chris. There were burgers, bratwursts, hot dogs, chips, carrots, cookies, and all that kind of thing.
After finishing the barbecue we all (except Leilani) headed over to The Goldfish Tavern, which is right next to Point Defiance. It's a tiny little dive, but kinda cute. The speakers were way too loud, though. Everyone (except me) had a drink there.
Carrie, Christine, Melissa, and I all went to The Parkway after that. We were joined some time later by Lawrence and Travis.
It was a really, really fun relaxing evening, especially for Carrie and the other Bead Babes, who'd had a most hectic day at work.
Carrie was brought home by someone (not me) and she had me go back out to Safeway and the liquor store for some others and varietals. Then we packed up a whole grip of stuff and headed out to Point Defiance park to barbeque! Or barbecue. Or Bar-B-Que. Or Bar-B-Q. Or BBQ. Howsoever you'd like to spell it, we did it.
We were joined by Cat, Heather, Christine, Melissa, and Leilani, and later on Heather's Chris. There were burgers, bratwursts, hot dogs, chips, carrots, cookies, and all that kind of thing.
After finishing the barbecue we all (except Leilani) headed over to The Goldfish Tavern, which is right next to Point Defiance. It's a tiny little dive, but kinda cute. The speakers were way too loud, though. Everyone (except me) had a drink there.
Carrie, Christine, Melissa, and I all went to The Parkway after that. We were joined some time later by Lawrence and Travis.
It was a really, really fun relaxing evening, especially for Carrie and the other Bead Babes, who'd had a most hectic day at work.
Labels: Cooking, Life, Restaurants
posted by Christopher at 11:32 AM
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Friday, May 25, 2007
Let's Watch Noovies and Eat Stones!
Yesterday (Thursday) I picked Carrie up for lunch and once again I made some shrimp gyoza. This time I added some vegetables to it. It took longer to cook because of it, but it tasted gooder and was more gooder for us.
We took a walk a while later. We need to get ourselves a lawnmower, and there's a lawnmower sales/repair place within easy walking distance, so we decided to head over there. When we got there, though, it looked really skeezy, and a guy walked out who looked exactly like... y'know in that movie Ghost World, the guy who hangs out in the convenience store? With the nunchucks? Yeah, looked like him. And then another scary guy (a larger man) walked out. I got all scared and decided not to go in and poke around. It just had a really sleazy feel to it.
So instead we walked over and hung out with Linnea and the girls for a little bit. She was baking blueberry scones just by coincidence. She makes some kickass blueberry scones, I tell you what. Lena, in her never-ending quest to be entertained, wanted me to make up various movies, or as she pronounced it, "noovies." So I became a prop comedian for a little bit, making up 10-15 second skits with whatever was lying around. A couple of my favorites: I picked up a pair of baby shoes and had them walk across the ottoman as an "invisible baby." The shoes then tumbled off the ottoman. "Don't worry," I said, "invisible baby just took its sheos off." I also grabbed an unclothed Barbie doll and wrapped a baby sweater around it. I then grabbed a baby bottle, said, "Have some hooch!" and upended it over Barbie's mouth. She then shouted, "Whee!" and removed the sweater. Inappropriate for a four-year-old? Well, it made Carrie laugh. There was also an extended one where a girl doll tried to teach me to surf.
Anyway, we ate scones (or "stones" as Lena pronounces them) and hung out in the backyard. It was a very nice day, perhaps just a tiny tad on the hot side. Eventually Carrie & I walked back home, where Carrie went and took a nap. I, on the other hand, ate a piece of pizza. So there!
After I took her back to the store so she could teach her evening class I went to Chéz Targét to pick up PotC:DMC. I also tried on some clothes, but I wasn't really feeling it. I'll have to go back there with Carrie soon, because I still have some birthday moneys left, and I usually have great luck with Target clothes.
I came home, did laundry, washed dishes, played Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn on Souls, and chilled until Carrie came home. When she did we cleaned up the laundry and whatnot a little bit, and then put on PotC:DMC and watched it in bed. We both of us had some trouble falling asleep, but Carrie had more trouble than I.
We took a walk a while later. We need to get ourselves a lawnmower, and there's a lawnmower sales/repair place within easy walking distance, so we decided to head over there. When we got there, though, it looked really skeezy, and a guy walked out who looked exactly like... y'know in that movie Ghost World, the guy who hangs out in the convenience store? With the nunchucks? Yeah, looked like him. And then another scary guy (a larger man) walked out. I got all scared and decided not to go in and poke around. It just had a really sleazy feel to it.
So instead we walked over and hung out with Linnea and the girls for a little bit. She was baking blueberry scones just by coincidence. She makes some kickass blueberry scones, I tell you what. Lena, in her never-ending quest to be entertained, wanted me to make up various movies, or as she pronounced it, "noovies." So I became a prop comedian for a little bit, making up 10-15 second skits with whatever was lying around. A couple of my favorites: I picked up a pair of baby shoes and had them walk across the ottoman as an "invisible baby." The shoes then tumbled off the ottoman. "Don't worry," I said, "invisible baby just took its sheos off." I also grabbed an unclothed Barbie doll and wrapped a baby sweater around it. I then grabbed a baby bottle, said, "Have some hooch!" and upended it over Barbie's mouth. She then shouted, "Whee!" and removed the sweater. Inappropriate for a four-year-old? Well, it made Carrie laugh. There was also an extended one where a girl doll tried to teach me to surf.
Anyway, we ate scones (or "stones" as Lena pronounces them) and hung out in the backyard. It was a very nice day, perhaps just a tiny tad on the hot side. Eventually Carrie & I walked back home, where Carrie went and took a nap. I, on the other hand, ate a piece of pizza. So there!
After I took her back to the store so she could teach her evening class I went to Chéz Targét to pick up PotC:DMC. I also tried on some clothes, but I wasn't really feeling it. I'll have to go back there with Carrie soon, because I still have some birthday moneys left, and I usually have great luck with Target clothes.
I came home, did laundry, washed dishes, played Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn on Souls, and chilled until Carrie came home. When she did we cleaned up the laundry and whatnot a little bit, and then put on PotC:DMC and watched it in bed. We both of us had some trouble falling asleep, but Carrie had more trouble than I.
posted by Christopher at 7:11 AM
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Wednesday, May 23, 2007
They Still Need to be Taken On
There's been a re-design of Take On the Toughies! Go and read all of the excerpts, now presented in random order!
TakeOnTheToughies.org
Labels: Links
posted by Christopher at 7:01 PM
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Finales
Monday was almost a complete wash. When I got home I was really, really lethargic, and one of my knees was really hurting (as well as a nagging ingrown toenail). I broke out my toolkit and took apart the taillight of my car—one of the brake lights had burned out. I walked down to the car parts store on the corner and dropped less than six bucks on a pair of replacement bulbs, which I then walked home and successfully installed. It made me feel kinda manly, using tools and fixing car parts.
After that I didn't get anything done, really. I did watch the season finalé of Heroes, though. I thought the final fight was anti-climactic.
<spoiler>You've got these two guys who've each absorbed dozens of other people's powers, and the fight consisted of a couple of punches and a couple of telekinetic stunts. About two minutes worth of stuff, when it could have gone on for 15 minutes and been fascinating watching them select opposing powers to use against each other.</spoiler>
I thought the Nathan thing at the very end, while cool and unexpected, was completely unnecessary. What was wrong with Peter's plan involving Claire? It probably would have worked, and if not, then Nathan could do what he did.
Anyhoo. Yesterday (Tuesday) about all I got done was a load of dishes. I also finished up my report on Friday Harbor. Then in the evening I watched the very last two episodes of Veronica Mars (they tried to play it off like it was one two-hour season finale, but it was very obviously just two episodes that they played back-to-back). The first one was great. It was nice seeing Weevil in the spotlight again. The second episode was difficult to watch. It was really good, but it was so tense and such badness that for several hours afterwards my heart was still tied up in knots. I was very glad when Carrie came home because that last episode made me feel very lonely.
I fell asleep very quickly.
After that I didn't get anything done, really. I did watch the season finalé of Heroes, though. I thought the final fight was anti-climactic.
<spoiler>You've got these two guys who've each absorbed dozens of other people's powers, and the fight consisted of a couple of punches and a couple of telekinetic stunts. About two minutes worth of stuff, when it could have gone on for 15 minutes and been fascinating watching them select opposing powers to use against each other.</spoiler>
I thought the Nathan thing at the very end, while cool and unexpected, was completely unnecessary. What was wrong with Peter's plan involving Claire? It probably would have worked, and if not, then Nathan could do what he did.
Anyhoo. Yesterday (Tuesday) about all I got done was a load of dishes. I also finished up my report on Friday Harbor. Then in the evening I watched the very last two episodes of Veronica Mars (they tried to play it off like it was one two-hour season finale, but it was very obviously just two episodes that they played back-to-back). The first one was great. It was nice seeing Weevil in the spotlight again. The second episode was difficult to watch. It was really good, but it was so tense and such badness that for several hours afterwards my heart was still tied up in knots. I was very glad when Carrie came home because that last episode made me feel very lonely.
I fell asleep very quickly.
posted by Christopher at 1:33 PM
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Monday, May 21, 2007
Where Carrie? Where is Her?
Yesterday (Sunday) Carrie & I had originally not planned on sleeping in too terribly much so we could clean the house and whatnot, but we were so tired from our journey to Friday Harbor that it was close to 11:00 by the time we finally were up and going.
And go we did, up to Carrie's Grandma's place, where we joined Carrie's folks (and Carrie's Grandma, obviously) for a pizza lunch. Pizza from It's Greek to Me. That's good pizza! It was some of my favorites: mushroom, sausage, pepperoni.
I left from there and went straight to practice at my brother's. The two of us were joined by Jake "Last Name Unpronounceable" Ynzunza for his first-ever practice! Later on we were joined by an Ed "80 Hour Work-Week" Gibbs V after a three-month absence, and then even later we were joined by Geoff "Huh? Whazzat?" Gibbs. We worked mostly on getting ideas for a post-Geoff Fools Play. We came up with a really cool format that involves a restaurant/café on the bottom floor of an apartment building. All the restaurant people and all the apartment people get along really well and like the situation... everyone, that is, except the owner of the restaurant and the owner of the apartments, who both want the other out of business, and threaten firing/expulsion to anyone they discover is associating with someone from the "other side."
After practice my dad was going to be cooking for the fambly. I didn't know whether Carrie was going to be up to it or not due to her hurty neck/shoulder area. I knew she was going to work a little while I was at practice, and there was a good chance that she would be hurting quite a bit after that.
So I called her to see if I should pick her up or not. She didn't answer. At all. I tried four times. I called her folks to make sure that they'd taken her home safe and all. They had. I called the Babe Factory to see if she was still there. She wasn't. So I drove on home. She wasn't there, but her phone was. Carrie, it seemed, wasn't anywhere. I called around until someone remembered overhearing a conversation between Christine and Carrie wherein it sounded like Christine said something to the effect of, "Are you ready to go?" So I called Christine's phone and Carrie answered! There was her! They'd gone to JoAnne so Christine could buy something or other, and were on their way back. And, yes, Carrie did want to go eat with my fambly.
So we drove back up the I-5 corridor to my folks' house. Everybody was already there, including Jason & Alexis, and they'd mostly all eaten already. Original pa was gonna barbecue, but it was raining pretty crazy yesterday, so he cooked inside instead. There were burgers, corn on the cob, asparagus, potato salad, regular salad, and potato chips. It was all rather tasty (I can't vouch for the corn, of course, as I haven't eaten corn in well over two years).
Afterwards we hung out for a while and then all of a sudden I just absolutely crashed. I was completely out. It was crazy! Fortunately Carrie was feeling steadily better, and she was able to drive on home.
And go we did, up to Carrie's Grandma's place, where we joined Carrie's folks (and Carrie's Grandma, obviously) for a pizza lunch. Pizza from It's Greek to Me. That's good pizza! It was some of my favorites: mushroom, sausage, pepperoni.
I left from there and went straight to practice at my brother's. The two of us were joined by Jake "Last Name Unpronounceable" Ynzunza for his first-ever practice! Later on we were joined by an Ed "80 Hour Work-Week" Gibbs V after a three-month absence, and then even later we were joined by Geoff "Huh? Whazzat?" Gibbs. We worked mostly on getting ideas for a post-Geoff Fools Play. We came up with a really cool format that involves a restaurant/café on the bottom floor of an apartment building. All the restaurant people and all the apartment people get along really well and like the situation... everyone, that is, except the owner of the restaurant and the owner of the apartments, who both want the other out of business, and threaten firing/expulsion to anyone they discover is associating with someone from the "other side."
After practice my dad was going to be cooking for the fambly. I didn't know whether Carrie was going to be up to it or not due to her hurty neck/shoulder area. I knew she was going to work a little while I was at practice, and there was a good chance that she would be hurting quite a bit after that.
So I called her to see if I should pick her up or not. She didn't answer. At all. I tried four times. I called her folks to make sure that they'd taken her home safe and all. They had. I called the Babe Factory to see if she was still there. She wasn't. So I drove on home. She wasn't there, but her phone was. Carrie, it seemed, wasn't anywhere. I called around until someone remembered overhearing a conversation between Christine and Carrie wherein it sounded like Christine said something to the effect of, "Are you ready to go?" So I called Christine's phone and Carrie answered! There was her! They'd gone to JoAnne so Christine could buy something or other, and were on their way back. And, yes, Carrie did want to go eat with my fambly.
So we drove back up the I-5 corridor to my folks' house. Everybody was already there, including Jason & Alexis, and they'd mostly all eaten already. Original pa was gonna barbecue, but it was raining pretty crazy yesterday, so he cooked inside instead. There were burgers, corn on the cob, asparagus, potato salad, regular salad, and potato chips. It was all rather tasty (I can't vouch for the corn, of course, as I haven't eaten corn in well over two years).
Afterwards we hung out for a while and then all of a sudden I just absolutely crashed. I was completely out. It was crazy! Fortunately Carrie was feeling steadily better, and she was able to drive on home.
Labels: Fools Play, Life
posted by Christopher at 4:07 PM
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[top]
Sunday, May 20, 2007
TGI Friday Harbor - Day 2
On Saturday we got up around 8:00. Carrie's shoulder was really hurting her from her fall the day before. We showered, but there was a problem with the hot water. The problem was that it would only stay hot for 30 - 60 seconds. Then you had to turn the water off and wait for a minute before you could have any more hot water. Strange that the "water" section of Elements would have problems with its water...
Anyway, after that inconvenience Leah picked us up and drove us to the other side of the island. We saw an actual, real-life fox on the side of the road! It was a nicer day than Friday, with more sun and slightly warmer temperatures. We ended up at another cute little beach alcove at the foot of a gentle slope and book-ended by cliffs. Here are Carrie and Leah and Leah's much-too-large sunglasses on the beach:
We were at this beach to go looking at some super tidepools. These weren't no wussy tidepools. These were the real deal:
This is what much of the weekend consisted of, looking down into water while Leah pointed out all the cool things in it:
Around the corner of a big ol' rock we stumbled upon this chiton that was way too far away from the water. Look at that crazy thing:
That's its foot! You couldn't see the plates on its back because they were covered with skin, but you could feel them underneath there. The skin had an interesting texture, kind of like Floam. After we were done looking it over, Leah put it back in the water. Well, it would be more accurate to say that Leah flung it about 50 feet into the water.
We kept on poking around the tidepools, seeing cool things like entire colonies of anemones all curled up on themselves:
And this really bright orange sea star, which Leah tells me is called Henrecia leviuscula, or "blood star:"
Whose blood is that orange, though? At any rate it was a really pretty morning by this time, so here are some pretty pictures. Enjoy:
After we were done poking around the tidepools, Leah took us back into town and we had breakfast at the Front Street Café. Carrie had the Eggs Benedict, and she said that it was some of the best Benedict she'd ever had in a restaurant. I had the chicken fried steak, which was really, really excellent. The breading was really thick and crunchy and tasty. Leah had French toast.
We walked around town after that, poking into all the touristy shops along the way. We found a wine shop that sold an exclusive line of wines that you can't get in any other store, so we picked up four bottles (actually we just bought them and had the guy hold them). We also went into a bookstore up on the 2nd floor of the pier area so Leah and Carrie could buy Father's Day presents. There was a universal air of exceptional service all over the island. Everyone was friendly and jovial and jolly. Probably because tourist season hasn't ground them down yet. Cynical? Not at all!
Eventually Leah left us because she had to go back to the laboratories and do some stuff for the open house they were having on Saturday. Carrie & I poked into a couple of other stores and then walked to our hotel and picked up all our baggage. We walked the three blocks back to the waterfront and passed on the way an ice cream shop that Leah had recommended. I got a cone of Butterfingers ice cream and Carrie got a cherry limeade. Really good! We walked down to a bench on the waterfront and ate/drank our stuff there. Then we picked up our wine and walked onto the ferry.
This ferry had come from Canada, so when we got back to Anacortes we had to go through customs. Here was the extent of customs: We showed our IDs to the guy, he asked us each where we were born (Carrie said, "Cleveland, Ohio." I said, "Rentuhn!").
We used the restroom in the ferry terminal. Carrie went first, and then I went, and when I came out I was surprised to find Carrie standing with Kedar. He had missed his ferry over to Friday Harbor and now had to wait over two hours for the next one! Whoops! We wished him luck and hauled our stuff to the parking lot where our car awaited us.
I drove because Carrie's shoulder/neck injury prevented her from turning her head very far. She decided she still wanted to go to Fools Play, and called Trevor to see if he wanted to go as well. He was over at his friend Andrew's house, and they both wanted to go. So on our way down south we stopped in Fife (after a stop at a Starbucks in Federal way to go to the bathroom) and picked the two of them up. They had just seen Robin Hood: Men in Tights and were talking about how hilarious it was. *Sigh* It's nice to expose them to Fools Play so they can see stuff that is actually funny. Hopefully soon they'll become comedic snobs like me!
We didn't stop at our house on the way to Oly because I'd thought ahead and packed all of my Fools Play stuff. At least, I thought I'd packed all of my Fools Play stuff...
We got to Studio 321 shortly before 7:00, and Carrie took the boys off to buy something to drink. It was then that I realized I didn't have the box office with me. I tried calling Carrie, but she'd left her phone in the car (a recurring theme of the entire weekend, as it would turn out). When she got back she agreed to go out again and get some change with the $50 bill I had in my wallet. So it all worked out after all.
The show was Fools Play Character night, and highlighted all of Geoff's recurring characters to the fullest. It ended with an extra-length episode of Nanamo.
I did not hang out with people after the show because I was tired from having such a long weekend, and we had to get the boys back to Fife at a semi-reasonable hour. We went through a Jack-in-the-Box drivethru on the way back. We dropped Trevor & Andrew off and then went on home ourselves.
Wotta weekend!
Anyway, after that inconvenience Leah picked us up and drove us to the other side of the island. We saw an actual, real-life fox on the side of the road! It was a nicer day than Friday, with more sun and slightly warmer temperatures. We ended up at another cute little beach alcove at the foot of a gentle slope and book-ended by cliffs. Here are Carrie and Leah and Leah's much-too-large sunglasses on the beach:
We were at this beach to go looking at some super tidepools. These weren't no wussy tidepools. These were the real deal: 
This is what much of the weekend consisted of, looking down into water while Leah pointed out all the cool things in it:
Around the corner of a big ol' rock we stumbled upon this chiton that was way too far away from the water. Look at that crazy thing: 
That's its foot! You couldn't see the plates on its back because they were covered with skin, but you could feel them underneath there. The skin had an interesting texture, kind of like Floam. After we were done looking it over, Leah put it back in the water. Well, it would be more accurate to say that Leah flung it about 50 feet into the water. We kept on poking around the tidepools, seeing cool things like entire colonies of anemones all curled up on themselves:
And this really bright orange sea star, which Leah tells me is called Henrecia leviuscula, or "blood star:" 
Whose blood is that orange, though? At any rate it was a really pretty morning by this time, so here are some pretty pictures. Enjoy:
After we were done poking around the tidepools, Leah took us back into town and we had breakfast at the Front Street Café. Carrie had the Eggs Benedict, and she said that it was some of the best Benedict she'd ever had in a restaurant. I had the chicken fried steak, which was really, really excellent. The breading was really thick and crunchy and tasty. Leah had French toast.
We walked around town after that, poking into all the touristy shops along the way. We found a wine shop that sold an exclusive line of wines that you can't get in any other store, so we picked up four bottles (actually we just bought them and had the guy hold them). We also went into a bookstore up on the 2nd floor of the pier area so Leah and Carrie could buy Father's Day presents. There was a universal air of exceptional service all over the island. Everyone was friendly and jovial and jolly. Probably because tourist season hasn't ground them down yet. Cynical? Not at all!
Eventually Leah left us because she had to go back to the laboratories and do some stuff for the open house they were having on Saturday. Carrie & I poked into a couple of other stores and then walked to our hotel and picked up all our baggage. We walked the three blocks back to the waterfront and passed on the way an ice cream shop that Leah had recommended. I got a cone of Butterfingers ice cream and Carrie got a cherry limeade. Really good! We walked down to a bench on the waterfront and ate/drank our stuff there. Then we picked up our wine and walked onto the ferry.
This ferry had come from Canada, so when we got back to Anacortes we had to go through customs. Here was the extent of customs: We showed our IDs to the guy, he asked us each where we were born (Carrie said, "Cleveland, Ohio." I said, "Rentuhn!").
We used the restroom in the ferry terminal. Carrie went first, and then I went, and when I came out I was surprised to find Carrie standing with Kedar. He had missed his ferry over to Friday Harbor and now had to wait over two hours for the next one! Whoops! We wished him luck and hauled our stuff to the parking lot where our car awaited us.
I drove because Carrie's shoulder/neck injury prevented her from turning her head very far. She decided she still wanted to go to Fools Play, and called Trevor to see if he wanted to go as well. He was over at his friend Andrew's house, and they both wanted to go. So on our way down south we stopped in Fife (after a stop at a Starbucks in Federal way to go to the bathroom) and picked the two of them up. They had just seen Robin Hood: Men in Tights and were talking about how hilarious it was. *Sigh* It's nice to expose them to Fools Play so they can see stuff that is actually funny. Hopefully soon they'll become comedic snobs like me!
We didn't stop at our house on the way to Oly because I'd thought ahead and packed all of my Fools Play stuff. At least, I thought I'd packed all of my Fools Play stuff...
We got to Studio 321 shortly before 7:00, and Carrie took the boys off to buy something to drink. It was then that I realized I didn't have the box office with me. I tried calling Carrie, but she'd left her phone in the car (a recurring theme of the entire weekend, as it would turn out). When she got back she agreed to go out again and get some change with the $50 bill I had in my wallet. So it all worked out after all.
The show was Fools Play Character night, and highlighted all of Geoff's recurring characters to the fullest. It ended with an extra-length episode of Nanamo.
I did not hang out with people after the show because I was tired from having such a long weekend, and we had to get the boys back to Fife at a semi-reasonable hour. We went through a Jack-in-the-Box drivethru on the way back. We dropped Trevor & Andrew off and then went on home ourselves.
Wotta weekend!
Labels: Fools Play, Life, Pictures, Restaurants, Shopping
posted by Christopher at 11:59 PM
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TGI Friday Harbor - Day 1!
On Friday morning I went in to work a whole two hours early, as I mentioned in my last post. While I was at work Carrie stayed home and packed a couple of overnight bags. Then she swung by the store and picked me up and we drove (she doing the actual driving) up to Anacortes to catch the Anacortes ferry to Friday Harbor!
We got to the ferry terminal plenty early. It had a stand-up of Raiden Fighters that unfortunately was out of order, so I played the other shmup stand-up they had there. We watched an episode of Teen Titans on my MacBook's DVD player, and then we boarded the ferry. It was kind of a gray day, but it was still nice enough. Here's the view out of the ferry window:
We passed a ferry going the opposite direction.
The ferry ride lasts over and hour, and weaves through the San Juan Islands to San Juan Island itself, the site of the hilarious British/American Pig War. We sat in the upper floor for most of the time, but towards the end we grabbed all our bags (since you can't leave them unattended) and wandered around the upper floor deck.
Finally we arrived at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. After disembarking the ferry we turned right as instructed and were picked up by Leah, super-cute haircut and all! Hooray! She drove us to our hotel so we could check in, and then drove us around the island, past the lighthouse to a secluded little beach.
As we were walking across a grassy field towards the beach (actually towards the cliff you have to climb down to get to the beach), Carrie's foot entered a hole in the ground and down she went!
But we made it down the cliff without incident. Then Leah showed us around the beach.
She told us about her school project where she turns over rocks and catches all of the crabs underneath them, then measures them. Needless to say, there were a tonne of crabs at this beach.
Here's a cute picture of Carrie and Leah:
And here's another crab:
Here's a view across the water towards some other islands. I'm not exactly sure which direction this is looking; the overcast sky really wreaked havoc with my direction sense. I think that might be Canada over there, though:
Leah said that this gigantic stump hadn't been on the beach the day before. Tides sure are sumpin', ain't they:
I like this photo. If it were 30 degrees warmer and the beach were a little less gravelly and a little more sandy, then this would look just like some location from Lost:
Leah was getting hungry, and I was on vacuum cleaner mode (meaning I could eat any amount of food at any time), so we scaled back up the cliff
And Leah drove us back into town where we had dinner at Vic's Driftwood Drive Inn, a really cool little place with an enormous menu. The menu in fact took up the entire back wall of the restaurant. Leah eats there quite a bit, so she knows them. She ordered a breakfast sammitch even though they technically weren't supposed to serve them anymore. Carrie hitched herself to Leah's star power and ordered a breakfast sammitch, too. I ordered a club sammitch. The guy behind the counter (Vic himself?) was really funny and cool. And my sammitch was ENORMOUS! I couldn't even pick up the frikkin' thing! Just ask Mathias if you don't believe me (he got the same sammitch when he went to Vic's while visiting Leah).
After dinner Leah took us to the Laboratories where she lives and works. The University of Washington runs a world-renowned marine research lab and campus just outside of Friday harbor. And that's where she took us. First she showed us the electron microscope, which was super cool. It was like something out of an old Sci-Fi movie. Then she showed us some lab rooms, which universally had big tanks of water and hoses and grates and water.
She took us to the lab room that she uses, where there were several cool creatures in tanks, such as shrimp, anemones, sea stars, and sea cucumbers. Here's Carrie not enjoying holding a sea cucumber:
When they get agitated, sea cucumbers swell up something fierce. This one got to the size of a football before we put it back. Some sea cucumbers spit up their guts as a defense mechanism (so predators will eat their guts and not them), but this one thankfully never got THAT agitated. Its skin felt like a rubber wetsuit.
Leah also poked an anemone with a sea star and set it lurching around the tank. It was pretty funny. Some of the most fun over the weekend was watching Leah poke and prod and toss around various sea creatures. She's actually posted videos of herself doing this (including one of the swimming anemone, called "swimming anemone").
The laboratories had a cool Japanese-esque architecture to them. I only took one photo of one building, and didn't really successfully capture the Japanese feel of the place. But I like this picture because you can actually see the Friday Harbor docks across the bay in the background:
Leah showed us her dorm room and everything. Then she took us back to our hotel. We were staying at Elements, which up until just a few weeks ago was the Friday Harbor Inn. We got a "water" room, but unfortunately they didn't have any water rooms with jetted tubs left. Fortunately, though, the facilities included a pool and a jacuzzi. Very fortunately, Leah had her swimsuit with her at the labs (it makes sense for a marine biologist to have a swimsuit with her), so we all put on our swimsuits and spent time in both the jacuzzi and the pool. Going back and forth and all that. It was a tonne of fun. Carrie & I like hanging out with Leah! It was a good way to close out the day.
Day 2 coming soon...
We got to the ferry terminal plenty early. It had a stand-up of Raiden Fighters that unfortunately was out of order, so I played the other shmup stand-up they had there. We watched an episode of Teen Titans on my MacBook's DVD player, and then we boarded the ferry. It was kind of a gray day, but it was still nice enough. Here's the view out of the ferry window:
We passed a ferry going the opposite direction. 
The ferry ride lasts over and hour, and weaves through the San Juan Islands to San Juan Island itself, the site of the hilarious British/American Pig War. We sat in the upper floor for most of the time, but towards the end we grabbed all our bags (since you can't leave them unattended) and wandered around the upper floor deck. 
Finally we arrived at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. After disembarking the ferry we turned right as instructed and were picked up by Leah, super-cute haircut and all! Hooray! She drove us to our hotel so we could check in, and then drove us around the island, past the lighthouse to a secluded little beach. As we were walking across a grassy field towards the beach (actually towards the cliff you have to climb down to get to the beach), Carrie's foot entered a hole in the ground and down she went!
But we made it down the cliff without incident. Then Leah showed us around the beach.
She told us about her school project where she turns over rocks and catches all of the crabs underneath them, then measures them. Needless to say, there were a tonne of crabs at this beach.
Here's a cute picture of Carrie and Leah:
And here's another crab:
Here's a view across the water towards some other islands. I'm not exactly sure which direction this is looking; the overcast sky really wreaked havoc with my direction sense. I think that might be Canada over there, though:
Leah said that this gigantic stump hadn't been on the beach the day before. Tides sure are sumpin', ain't they:
I like this photo. If it were 30 degrees warmer and the beach were a little less gravelly and a little more sandy, then this would look just like some location from Lost: 
Leah was getting hungry, and I was on vacuum cleaner mode (meaning I could eat any amount of food at any time), so we scaled back up the cliff
And Leah drove us back into town where we had dinner at Vic's Driftwood Drive Inn, a really cool little place with an enormous menu. The menu in fact took up the entire back wall of the restaurant. Leah eats there quite a bit, so she knows them. She ordered a breakfast sammitch even though they technically weren't supposed to serve them anymore. Carrie hitched herself to Leah's star power and ordered a breakfast sammitch, too. I ordered a club sammitch. The guy behind the counter (Vic himself?) was really funny and cool. And my sammitch was ENORMOUS! I couldn't even pick up the frikkin' thing! Just ask Mathias if you don't believe me (he got the same sammitch when he went to Vic's while visiting Leah). After dinner Leah took us to the Laboratories where she lives and works. The University of Washington runs a world-renowned marine research lab and campus just outside of Friday harbor. And that's where she took us. First she showed us the electron microscope, which was super cool. It was like something out of an old Sci-Fi movie. Then she showed us some lab rooms, which universally had big tanks of water and hoses and grates and water.
She took us to the lab room that she uses, where there were several cool creatures in tanks, such as shrimp, anemones, sea stars, and sea cucumbers. Here's Carrie not enjoying holding a sea cucumber:
When they get agitated, sea cucumbers swell up something fierce. This one got to the size of a football before we put it back. Some sea cucumbers spit up their guts as a defense mechanism (so predators will eat their guts and not them), but this one thankfully never got THAT agitated. Its skin felt like a rubber wetsuit. Leah also poked an anemone with a sea star and set it lurching around the tank. It was pretty funny. Some of the most fun over the weekend was watching Leah poke and prod and toss around various sea creatures. She's actually posted videos of herself doing this (including one of the swimming anemone, called "swimming anemone").
The laboratories had a cool Japanese-esque architecture to them. I only took one photo of one building, and didn't really successfully capture the Japanese feel of the place. But I like this picture because you can actually see the Friday Harbor docks across the bay in the background:
Leah showed us her dorm room and everything. Then she took us back to our hotel. We were staying at Elements, which up until just a few weeks ago was the Friday Harbor Inn. We got a "water" room, but unfortunately they didn't have any water rooms with jetted tubs left. Fortunately, though, the facilities included a pool and a jacuzzi. Very fortunately, Leah had her swimsuit with her at the labs (it makes sense for a marine biologist to have a swimsuit with her), so we all put on our swimsuits and spent time in both the jacuzzi and the pool. Going back and forth and all that. It was a tonne of fun. Carrie & I like hanging out with Leah! It was a good way to close out the day. Day 2 coming soon...
Labels: Life, Links, Pictures, Restaurants
posted by Christopher at 11:26 PM
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Friday, May 18, 2007
It's Early
Why am I up so early?
• So I can get to work early.
Why do I need to get to work early?
• So I can get off work early.
Why do I need to get off work early?
• So Carrie can pick me up and we can go to Anacortes, get on a ferry, and go visit Leia in Friday Harbor! We're very excited!
But that's today. Yesterday (Thursday) was another weirdly-scheduled day for Carrie. She was still in bed when I left for work. I called her when I got to work to make sure she would actually wake up. She did, but she had migraine-type symptoms all day.
When I got home she was still at werk, so I went and dropped off a check at our insurance guy's office, then swung by and picked her up. She made a list for me and I went to Trader Joe's and grabbed most of what was on the list. I also grabbed a tri-tip wrap for me to eat in the car on the way home.
At 6:00 I went to the Babe Factory with Carrie and helped her to quickly set up her class. Then I came home and did a load of dishes and a load of laundry. I only got one load of laundry done because the dishwasher seemed to take forevah! I swear it ran for almost two full hours.
All I had for din-dins was a yogurt, so I was plenny hungry by the time Carrie called to pick me up after her class. She was feeling a little better than she had been all day, so to celebrate we ate some horribly unhealthy drive-through food from Taco Bell. That's the danger of having a Taco Bell on the way home.
I didn't get to sleep until almost 1:30, which is kinda bad because I woke up at 5:45 today. That ain't much sleep to go on. But I'll sleep in the car on the way up to Anacortes using my superhero ability, Fall Asleep in Any Moving Vehicle.
• So I can get to work early.
Why do I need to get to work early?
• So I can get off work early.
Why do I need to get off work early?
• So Carrie can pick me up and we can go to Anacortes, get on a ferry, and go visit Leia in Friday Harbor! We're very excited!
But that's today. Yesterday (Thursday) was another weirdly-scheduled day for Carrie. She was still in bed when I left for work. I called her when I got to work to make sure she would actually wake up. She did, but she had migraine-type symptoms all day.
When I got home she was still at werk, so I went and dropped off a check at our insurance guy's office, then swung by and picked her up. She made a list for me and I went to Trader Joe's and grabbed most of what was on the list. I also grabbed a tri-tip wrap for me to eat in the car on the way home.
At 6:00 I went to the Babe Factory with Carrie and helped her to quickly set up her class. Then I came home and did a load of dishes and a load of laundry. I only got one load of laundry done because the dishwasher seemed to take forevah! I swear it ran for almost two full hours.
All I had for din-dins was a yogurt, so I was plenny hungry by the time Carrie called to pick me up after her class. She was feeling a little better than she had been all day, so to celebrate we ate some horribly unhealthy drive-through food from Taco Bell. That's the danger of having a Taco Bell on the way home.
I didn't get to sleep until almost 1:30, which is kinda bad because I woke up at 5:45 today. That ain't much sleep to go on. But I'll sleep in the car on the way up to Anacortes using my superhero ability, Fall Asleep in Any Moving Vehicle.
Labels: Life
posted by Christopher at 6:21 AM
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Thursday, May 17, 2007
Wir gingen zum Flughafen
Yesterday (Wednesday) around about the time I got off work I started getting a serious grump on. My blood sugar decided to tank for some reason. So when I picked Carrie up from work we swung by Jack in the Box and loaded up on calories. I felt much better afterwards, although I also felt much less healthy.
Yesterday was odd in that Carrie had a split-shift instead of her normal 8:00 - 4:00 shift. So after lunch I didn't have to take her back to the store until later on. After I did take her back I made myself a stir fry of tofu and green beans. Very tasty! I made it with tarragon vinegar and lots of black pepper (and of course soy sauce). That made me feel much healthier than lunch!
Around 7:15 I swung by Stadium and picked up Lawrence, and the twain of us drove up to the SeaTac airport whilst listening to The Wastelanders' BlackHearted American Water. On the way we stopped at Carrie's folks' house so I could drop off our contributions to the Broadway Center auction thingy. Carrie donated ten pairs of earrings, and I donated these etched martini glasses:
It's way difficult to take good photos of etched glassware, so I'm very proud of this one! Some color/contrast adjustment in Photoshop didn't hurt none, either.
There was crazy construction at the airport (as there always seems to be), but after circling around (in a much more complicated circle than usual—it involved going down into the street, through a stop sign, and practically back to the Burien freeway) a couple of times we pulled over and picked up Christine, back from California! Hooray!
I drove them back to her place before coming home, watching Mythbusters, doing laundry, and playing some of Final Fantasy I. Carrie came home after her class late (after 11:00) and we went to bed shortly thereafter.
Yesterday was odd in that Carrie had a split-shift instead of her normal 8:00 - 4:00 shift. So after lunch I didn't have to take her back to the store until later on. After I did take her back I made myself a stir fry of tofu and green beans. Very tasty! I made it with tarragon vinegar and lots of black pepper (and of course soy sauce). That made me feel much healthier than lunch!
Around 7:15 I swung by Stadium and picked up Lawrence, and the twain of us drove up to the SeaTac airport whilst listening to The Wastelanders' BlackHearted American Water. On the way we stopped at Carrie's folks' house so I could drop off our contributions to the Broadway Center auction thingy. Carrie donated ten pairs of earrings, and I donated these etched martini glasses:
It's way difficult to take good photos of etched glassware, so I'm very proud of this one! Some color/contrast adjustment in Photoshop didn't hurt none, either. There was crazy construction at the airport (as there always seems to be), but after circling around (in a much more complicated circle than usual—it involved going down into the street, through a stop sign, and practically back to the Burien freeway) a couple of times we pulled over and picked up Christine, back from California! Hooray!
I drove them back to her place before coming home, watching Mythbusters, doing laundry, and playing some of Final Fantasy I. Carrie came home after her class late (after 11:00) and we went to bed shortly thereafter.
posted by Christopher at 6:54 PM
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@#$%!&#!%
posted by Christopher at 6:50 PM
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Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Ahoy
Labels: Videos
posted by Christopher at 4:10 PM
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We Are Going to the Beach
Yesterday (Tuesday) after work Carrie called me to say that she was going to Starbucks with Linnea. I drove by on my way home and looked, but didn't see them even though they were there. I went home and ate a hot pocket (the sub sammitch style one), and Carrie came home shortly thereafter with a gigantro chocolaty drink for me, and the news that we were going to go to the beach with the Tarbet women.
So we drove over to their house and had them follow us to Owen Beach in Point Defiance. Yes, Tacoma does have a beautiful, sandy beach. And since it was in the 80s yesterday, there were plenty of people out sunbathing away the Washington winter paleness.
We forgot to bring some stuff with us, like towels, sunscreen, and our digital camera (and Linnea forgot the same things), but that didn't stop us from having a good time, or stop me from taking pictures; I have a camera phone!
It was a lot of fun, and I managed not to get sandy at all.
I came home and worked for a short while. Then I downloaded They Might Be Giants' new album "The Else" from iTunes. The physical CD doesn't come out until next month, though!
I took Carrie back to work so she could teach her class, and I myself went to the Fred Meyer for to go to the bonk, get sammitch baggies, and buy some newer, more expensive stamps. I came home, made some turkey dogs for din-dins (which I ate with some macaroni salad), caught the last ten minutes of the last-ever episode of Gilmore Girls, and then watched a new episode of Veronica Mars. It was very good! It had a couple of twists that I did not see coming at all. And one that I kinda did, but it was still good.
While I was watching all of this TeleVision I was still very busy etching a high-heeled shoe martini glass for some sorta auction that Carrie's mum is doing for the Broadway Center (she wanted a matching set, and I already had one etched, so I only had to etch one more). And after the TeleVision programmes were over I did some more work until Carrie came home, and which point we went to bed.
Having been a rather hot day, the bedroom still retained much of that temperature. So I cracked the window for the first time in 2007 and we slept with the overhead fan on. Carrie had some pretty bad allergy stuff going on, too, and didn't get nearly as much sleep as I did.
So we drove over to their house and had them follow us to Owen Beach in Point Defiance. Yes, Tacoma does have a beautiful, sandy beach. And since it was in the 80s yesterday, there were plenty of people out sunbathing away the Washington winter paleness.
We forgot to bring some stuff with us, like towels, sunscreen, and our digital camera (and Linnea forgot the same things), but that didn't stop us from having a good time, or stop me from taking pictures; I have a camera phone!
It was a lot of fun, and I managed not to get sandy at all. I came home and worked for a short while. Then I downloaded They Might Be Giants' new album "The Else" from iTunes. The physical CD doesn't come out until next month, though!
I took Carrie back to work so she could teach her class, and I myself went to the Fred Meyer for to go to the bonk, get sammitch baggies, and buy some newer, more expensive stamps. I came home, made some turkey dogs for din-dins (which I ate with some macaroni salad), caught the last ten minutes of the last-ever episode of Gilmore Girls, and then watched a new episode of Veronica Mars. It was very good! It had a couple of twists that I did not see coming at all. And one that I kinda did, but it was still good.
While I was watching all of this TeleVision I was still very busy etching a high-heeled shoe martini glass for some sorta auction that Carrie's mum is doing for the Broadway Center (she wanted a matching set, and I already had one etched, so I only had to etch one more). And after the TeleVision programmes were over I did some more work until Carrie came home, and which point we went to bed.
Having been a rather hot day, the bedroom still retained much of that temperature. So I cracked the window for the first time in 2007 and we slept with the overhead fan on. Carrie had some pretty bad allergy stuff going on, too, and didn't get nearly as much sleep as I did.
Labels: Life, Pictures, Thirsty Robots, TV
posted by Christopher at 2:57 PM
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007
He Sweeps With His "Z"s, Not With a Bwoom
Yesterday (Monday) I picked Carrie up from work and we had some lunch together. I was on vacuum-cleaner mode, so I just kept eating and eating whatever I could get my hands on. After I took her back she only had two hours until she was done with work, and for some reason those two hours just flew by for me! I dropped her off, came home, and did some work, and when I turned around it was time to go pick her up again! I have no idea where the time went, but it didn't seem like I got very much done in those two hours—there were several more things I'd planned on doing with my afternoon time.
Anyway, I picked her up and we went straight to the gym for a little bit, then came home and walked to the Neighborhood Market to grab some barbeque fixin's. Carrie went and picked up Lawrence and I grilled us up some turkey dogs (and some hot links for Carrie), and we ate on the front porch with both potato and macaroni salad. After dinner there were some video games played, but then I just started getting more and more sleepy, to the point where I almost fell completely asleep while playing Mario Kart (I still came in 1st place).
So Carrie took over for me and I moved over to the chair and konked out. Carrie took Lawrence home and I did manage to be awake enough to actually watch the episode of Heroes that was on at 9:00. But then I went basically straight to bed and fell asleep rather quickly.
I don't feel like I got very much accomplished yesterday; there were things I were supposed to do and people I was supposed to call that I just ran out of time and energy before being able to do so. The only thing that really got accomplished was that Carrie & I finalized our weekend plans. We're very excited about them. More on those later...
Anyway, I picked her up and we went straight to the gym for a little bit, then came home and walked to the Neighborhood Market to grab some barbeque fixin's. Carrie went and picked up Lawrence and I grilled us up some turkey dogs (and some hot links for Carrie), and we ate on the front porch with both potato and macaroni salad. After dinner there were some video games played, but then I just started getting more and more sleepy, to the point where I almost fell completely asleep while playing Mario Kart (I still came in 1st place).
So Carrie took over for me and I moved over to the chair and konked out. Carrie took Lawrence home and I did manage to be awake enough to actually watch the episode of Heroes that was on at 9:00. But then I went basically straight to bed and fell asleep rather quickly.
I don't feel like I got very much accomplished yesterday; there were things I were supposed to do and people I was supposed to call that I just ran out of time and energy before being able to do so. The only thing that really got accomplished was that Carrie & I finalized our weekend plans. We're very excited about them. More on those later...
Labels: Life
posted by Christopher at 8:18 AM
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Sunday, May 13, 2007
Special Delivery!
Yesterday (Saturday) I got up in the morning and went and uploaded my latest movie review! You should go read it now. NOW!
Grindhouse (2007)
Carrie & I were originally planning on going out to breakfast, but we ended up getting up and getting ready so late that it was more like going out for lunch.
We went to The Spar down near the waterfront. As we were walking up to the building Carrie noticed somebody in the kitchen who looked familiar. Turns out it was Chris, our downstairs neighbor from back when we used to live in the apartment (the one with stained-glass windows). We also ran into Katie, which we kinda expected.
We had deep fried seafood and Spar chips, and it was a very good lunch.
We came back home and I got ready for and left for the Fools Play workshop. After the workshop Mike & I got a pizza at Brewery City Pizza. They do make some tasty pizzas there. We ate it back at Studio 321 before setting everything up and working out the kinks in the new format.
That's right, Mike & I were the only two Fools who could make it to this show, so we invented a brand-new format: Fools Play Special Delivery! In it, Bill the Mailman goes around delivering mail to people, but not before he opens the letters and reads them! In the end he discovers a vast conspiracy and sets off to stop it Hot Fuzz style.
It was a frikkin' hilarious show. There were several scenes where both Mike and I could not stop busting up while we were performing them. And thankfully the audience was busting up right along with us.
After the show we went to Rib Eye, where I sat with Mathias, Sandy, & Amber. I had a French dip and two Pepsis, on account of I needed the caffeine so that I wouldn't fall asleep on the way home.
Labels: Fools Play, Life, Restaurants, Updates
posted by Christopher at 9:19 AM
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Saturday, May 12, 2007
Schedule Change!
Yesterday (Friday) Carrie again had a different shift, though not as completely opposite as Thursday. She was home when I left for work, and she was at work when I came home. She called me shortly thereafter for lunch.
Then in the afternoon I went over to a client's house to finish up some stuff. Carrie was scheduled to go on her dinner break at 5:30, plenny of time for me to have my meeting and everything. Unfortunately they changed her break with no warning to something like 4:15. I was still out at that time, so I couldn't pick her up for dinner. Plus, she'd just had lunch like two hours earlier.
So she walked to Starbucks and hung out there for her dinner. I stopped by Safeway on the way home and bought some yummies. When finally Carrie was done with work I picked her up and fired up the grill. Christine came over and joined us for some tasty burgers, then she and Carrie went shopping at Targét. Carrie came back with a couple of cute zippy hoodies. We watched a new episode of Numb3rs together and then went to bed.
Then in the afternoon I went over to a client's house to finish up some stuff. Carrie was scheduled to go on her dinner break at 5:30, plenny of time for me to have my meeting and everything. Unfortunately they changed her break with no warning to something like 4:15. I was still out at that time, so I couldn't pick her up for dinner. Plus, she'd just had lunch like two hours earlier.
So she walked to Starbucks and hung out there for her dinner. I stopped by Safeway on the way home and bought some yummies. When finally Carrie was done with work I picked her up and fired up the grill. Christine came over and joined us for some tasty burgers, then she and Carrie went shopping at Targét. Carrie came back with a couple of cute zippy hoodies. We watched a new episode of Numb3rs together and then went to bed.
Labels: Life
posted by Christopher at 1:46 PM
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Friday, May 11, 2007
Opposites Attract
Yesterday I went in to work as per my usual. Carrie, however, did not. I finished with work, went home, and had lunch with Carrie, who immediately thereafter proceeded to go to work herself. We had opposite schedules! Almost as soon as I got off work, she went to work!
After I dropped her off at work I came home and watered my flowers by spraying the hose in a gentle-rain type of way. As I was spraying around, out of the corner of my eye I caught what I thought was an ENORMOUS bug hovering near the stream of water. When my eyes focused on it I realized that it wasn't a bug at all, buta hideous robot a hummingbird! I tried to get a picture of it with my camera phone, as it seemed to like to hover near the stream of water shooting out of the hose. Here's what I got:
As you can see, you can't see anything. See? Oh, well. It was a good experience even if it didn't get captured digitially.
For much of the rest of the day I rested, on account of not having gotten very much sleep the night before. I also played a bunch of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. It's a pretty good one!
I also went out shopping for me mum's Mother's Day prezzie. I went first to Urban Kitchen, but to my surprise they had not that for which I searched! So I was forced to go to the mall of shopping and poke around there. Thankfully, I found that for which I searched.
Shortly before Carrie got off of work she called me and asked if I'd go pick up Lawrence and stake out a table at The Parkway. So I did and so we did. We were joined a while later by Rachel and her significant figure Jake, and then a while after that Carrie, Christine, and Melissa joined us as well.
Our waitress was acting really weirdly, and not at all appealing. She said that the kitchen didn't close until 11:00, but then she kept on making weird pressuring statements about getting our orders in and wanting to get off to go drink and stuff like that. Do not want.
But the rest of the time at the Parkway was rollicking good funtimes. We drove melissa home afterwards. I just played a little C:AOS before falling to sleepy.
After I dropped her off at work I came home and watered my flowers by spraying the hose in a gentle-rain type of way. As I was spraying around, out of the corner of my eye I caught what I thought was an ENORMOUS bug hovering near the stream of water. When my eyes focused on it I realized that it wasn't a bug at all, but
As you can see, you can't see anything. See? Oh, well. It was a good experience even if it didn't get captured digitially.For much of the rest of the day I rested, on account of not having gotten very much sleep the night before. I also played a bunch of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. It's a pretty good one!
I also went out shopping for me mum's Mother's Day prezzie. I went first to Urban Kitchen, but to my surprise they had not that for which I searched! So I was forced to go to the mall of shopping and poke around there. Thankfully, I found that for which I searched.
Shortly before Carrie got off of work she called me and asked if I'd go pick up Lawrence and stake out a table at The Parkway. So I did and so we did. We were joined a while later by Rachel and her significant figure Jake, and then a while after that Carrie, Christine, and Melissa joined us as well.
Our waitress was acting really weirdly, and not at all appealing. She said that the kitchen didn't close until 11:00, but then she kept on making weird pressuring statements about getting our orders in and wanting to get off to go drink and stuff like that. Do not want.
But the rest of the time at the Parkway was rollicking good funtimes. We drove melissa home afterwards. I just played a little C:AOS before falling to sleepy.
Labels: Life, Pictures, Shopping, Video Games
posted by Christopher at 7:26 PM
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
Hunt Them Ghosts. Do It.
Yesterday (Wednesday) when I went to work I found a birthday present on my desk: a robotic bank and some candy! After work I picked up Carrie for lunch and made Mandarin chicken. I took Carrie back to work and headed straight to SafeWay to buy some burgers and buns.
It was an exceptionally nice day, so the two of us sat out on the front porch for much of the late afternoon. I played Kirby Squeak Squad (birthday gift from Kevin) on my DS and Carrie played some backgammon on the MacBook.
Originally we were gonna barbeque with the Tarbet clan, but they all got the sick, so Carrie & I just barbequed out on the front porch. Well, Carrie barbequed on the front porch; I got really sleepy and took a nap. The burgers were very tasty.
In the evening was an hours-long Ghost Hunters marathon. So we watched that and did some rudimentary cleaning during the commercials, like laundry and going through the mail that had piled up on the chair.
At 11:00 I made Carrie a root beer float and for myself made a bowl of ice cream into which I crumbled a lemon cupcake (with chocolate frosting). In bed I worked on a movie review—look for it soon! I had a heck of a time falling asleep, though! I was up 'til all hours. ALL.
When I finally did fall asleep, my dreams were basically a combination of Ghost Hunters and Castlevania. Like as if the Ghost Hunters team were investigating Castlevania.
It was an exceptionally nice day, so the two of us sat out on the front porch for much of the late afternoon. I played Kirby Squeak Squad (birthday gift from Kevin) on my DS and Carrie played some backgammon on the MacBook.
Originally we were gonna barbeque with the Tarbet clan, but they all got the sick, so Carrie & I just barbequed out on the front porch. Well, Carrie barbequed on the front porch; I got really sleepy and took a nap. The burgers were very tasty.
In the evening was an hours-long Ghost Hunters marathon. So we watched that and did some rudimentary cleaning during the commercials, like laundry and going through the mail that had piled up on the chair.
At 11:00 I made Carrie a root beer float and for myself made a bowl of ice cream into which I crumbled a lemon cupcake (with chocolate frosting). In bed I worked on a movie review—look for it soon! I had a heck of a time falling asleep, though! I was up 'til all hours. ALL.
When I finally did fall asleep, my dreams were basically a combination of Ghost Hunters and Castlevania. Like as if the Ghost Hunters team were investigating Castlevania.
Labels: Life
posted by Christopher at 8:19 AM
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Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Insert Coin to Continue
Where was I? Ah, yes, I'd gotten sleepy while writing the previous post, so now I'll continue from where I left off.
I seem to remember us eating breakfast out at the Parkway on Saturday morning, but I can't be 100% for sure.
At any rate, my brudda picked me up for Fools Play at 2:30 so we could do the whole workshop thing, then we went to Mekong for some Phud Thai, then back to Studio 321 to do a Fools Play Co-Show with the group known as "Quiet Monkey Fight." There were a grand total of eight of them, and only three Fools!
Carrie came down and saw the show, and brought Trevor (because it was his 15th birthday) and his friend Andrew. It was overall a thoroughly enjoyable show. Everyone thought that the first scene of the night was one of the best, but for some reason it's almost impossible to remember what it was. I've forgotten once again.
We all (including Carrie and the boys, but excluding anyone from QMF) went out to Rib Eye afterwards, before I drove Trevor and Andrew back up to Fife and then Carrie & myself back home.
Sunday was my birfday! The plan was to get some people together in the early afternoon and go see Spider-Man 3. Unfortunately the show sold out so early that only four people (other than me and Carrie) got into the show. Fortunately one of them was Geoff, my co-birthday buddy, because I'd gone to the theater early and bought tickets for me, Carrie, and Geoff. Unfortunately I'd managed to lock my keys in the car when I did that. Fortunately Carrie was able to get the Tarbets to drive her to the theater.
Anyhoo, after the movie people started coming over to my house, and I started up the coals in the barbeque. Carrie and the rest of the Bead Babes had a store meeting at 6:30, and it didn't get over until after 9:00. But in the interim a whole bunch of people did show up, and I made 20 hamburgers on that grill. I ran out of both buns and bread before the last one was made, so Jamie had to have his low-carb style.
We all had a pretty durned good time, and some of my friends who had never been to my house before were able to come! I like people to see my house.
Everyone started trickling out between 11:00 and 12:00 (because the next day was a Monday, and most peoples work on a Monday). Somebody left a DS at my house (see this post). Neighbor Gary spent the night on the couch 'cause he was meeting a friend at 8:00 in the AM at Metropolitan Market, and it made no sense for him to drive all the way down to Oly just to have to drive all the way back up in the morning.
That brings us to Monday, which was thoroughly uneventful. I can't remember a thing about it right now, but my brain is a little fuzzy this early in the AM.
Then yesterday (Tuesday) after work my dad came over and we took him to Katie Downs from lunch. Then he and I worked in the backyard, creating a new flower bed next to the lilac tree. We went to the Fred Meyer and bought a whole bunch of flowers which we then planted. Take a look!
Doesn't look like much now, but that's 'cause everything was just planted! Give it a few weeks to grow and you'll be amazed at the riot of colour in my backyard!
Carrie went to teach class in the evening and I went to Trader Joe's for food supplies (other than cheese, which we still have a tonne of thanks to Amsterdam). Then I watched the episode of Numb3rs that I'd missed on Friday, and then a new episode of Veronica Mars guest-starring Paul Rudd! Very funny episode.
Carrie called me to pick her up shortly after that, and we at the leftover pizza slices from Katie Downs.
When I came to bed (after ECW) I started my new tradition: writing before I go to sleep. Now that I am 30 years old I am entering a new phase in my life. I am going to start writing up a storm, for reals. In the past I've dabbled with writing, but (aside from in college) never really put aside any time to write consistently. Well, from now on I'm going to be writing almost every night before I go to sleep. I'm going to start with stuff for this website: Movie Reviews and Articles that I've been long neglecting. Then I'm going to be moving on to other writing endeavors. I'll keep you posted.
Two of my favorite writers, Robert A. Heinlein and Haruki Murakami, started writing for reals when they were 30. I think I'm in good company.
I seem to remember us eating breakfast out at the Parkway on Saturday morning, but I can't be 100% for sure.
At any rate, my brudda picked me up for Fools Play at 2:30 so we could do the whole workshop thing, then we went to Mekong for some Phud Thai, then back to Studio 321 to do a Fools Play Co-Show with the group known as "Quiet Monkey Fight." There were a grand total of eight of them, and only three Fools!
Carrie came down and saw the show, and brought Trevor (because it was his 15th birthday) and his friend Andrew. It was overall a thoroughly enjoyable show. Everyone thought that the first scene of the night was one of the best, but for some reason it's almost impossible to remember what it was. I've forgotten once again.
We all (including Carrie and the boys, but excluding anyone from QMF) went out to Rib Eye afterwards, before I drove Trevor and Andrew back up to Fife and then Carrie & myself back home.
Sunday was my birfday! The plan was to get some people together in the early afternoon and go see Spider-Man 3. Unfortunately the show sold out so early that only four people (other than me and Carrie) got into the show. Fortunately one of them was Geoff, my co-birthday buddy, because I'd gone to the theater early and bought tickets for me, Carrie, and Geoff. Unfortunately I'd managed to lock my keys in the car when I did that. Fortunately Carrie was able to get the Tarbets to drive her to the theater.
Anyhoo, after the movie people started coming over to my house, and I started up the coals in the barbeque. Carrie and the rest of the Bead Babes had a store meeting at 6:30, and it didn't get over until after 9:00. But in the interim a whole bunch of people did show up, and I made 20 hamburgers on that grill. I ran out of both buns and bread before the last one was made, so Jamie had to have his low-carb style.
We all had a pretty durned good time, and some of my friends who had never been to my house before were able to come! I like people to see my house.
Everyone started trickling out between 11:00 and 12:00 (because the next day was a Monday, and most peoples work on a Monday). Somebody left a DS at my house (see this post). Neighbor Gary spent the night on the couch 'cause he was meeting a friend at 8:00 in the AM at Metropolitan Market, and it made no sense for him to drive all the way down to Oly just to have to drive all the way back up in the morning.
That brings us to Monday, which was thoroughly uneventful. I can't remember a thing about it right now, but my brain is a little fuzzy this early in the AM.
Then yesterday (Tuesday) after work my dad came over and we took him to Katie Downs from lunch. Then he and I worked in the backyard, creating a new flower bed next to the lilac tree. We went to the Fred Meyer and bought a whole bunch of flowers which we then planted. Take a look!
Doesn't look like much now, but that's 'cause everything was just planted! Give it a few weeks to grow and you'll be amazed at the riot of colour in my backyard! Carrie went to teach class in the evening and I went to Trader Joe's for food supplies (other than cheese, which we still have a tonne of thanks to Amsterdam). Then I watched the episode of Numb3rs that I'd missed on Friday, and then a new episode of Veronica Mars guest-starring Paul Rudd! Very funny episode.
Carrie called me to pick her up shortly after that, and we at the leftover pizza slices from Katie Downs.
When I came to bed (after ECW) I started my new tradition: writing before I go to sleep. Now that I am 30 years old I am entering a new phase in my life. I am going to start writing up a storm, for reals. In the past I've dabbled with writing, but (aside from in college) never really put aside any time to write consistently. Well, from now on I'm going to be writing almost every night before I go to sleep. I'm going to start with stuff for this website: Movie Reviews and Articles that I've been long neglecting. Then I'm going to be moving on to other writing endeavors. I'll keep you posted.
Two of my favorite writers, Robert A. Heinlein and Haruki Murakami, started writing for reals when they were 30. I think I'm in good company.
posted by Christopher at 7:46 AM
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Tuesday, May 08, 2007
The Dawn of a New Era
So lemme recap this last week real quick-like. On Wednesday I learned a new skill: making pendants out of microscope slides. I was taught by a very generous woman. I then went out and bought as many of the supplies as I could get my hands on, excluding of course the microscope slides themselves, which are impossible just to go out and buy (thankfully Michelle gave me a handful of microscope slides).
The next day I hunted around for a glass cutter (which are also kinda hard to find). Once I found one I tried to make some pendants on my own and failed utterly, due to the fact that I had the wrong kind of flux (but it wasn't my fault; I stole the flux from Carrie to begin with). It was very, very frustrating, as I had a very firm deadline of having to be finished with everything by Saturday (you'll learn why a bit further down).
So the next day I went back and talked to Michelle, and she sent me down to Mandarin Glass in Lakewood to buy flux. This is where I had already been to buy the copper foil tape (and where I had gone in search of microscope slides). They did not have the same type of flux that Michelle used, but I bought some anyway because it was only five bucks down the tube if it didn't work.
It did. If anything, it worked better than what I'd been trained on. And I created a really good pendant.
That same day (we're on Friday now if you've lost track) in the evening my whole family came over along with Jason and Alexis, and all nine of us went to Sakura for din-dins. Sakura is one of them Benihana-style restaurants where you sit around a big grill plate and they cook the food in front of you and toss the knives around a little bit. It's a good show, and the whole family could sit around one grill, so it was a good choice. Also it's pretty durned tasty, especially the pink fish/wine sauce stuff. If they bottled and sold that, Carrie would eat it all of the time. Since it was my birthday I got surf & turf -- steak & lobster. Durned tasty, I tells ya.
After dinner we came back to the house where I opened presents. Mostly money (which is good), some movie gift certificates from Susan, my brother gave me a tonne of Earthbound/Mother music (which is really cool), and me mum gave me a pretty big gift:
He's fully 12" tall, and is probably more complicated to transform than my 12" Unicron action figure. But he looks durned cool, and he comes with a little Matrix that lights up when you put it in his chest.
After that there were cupcakes that my lovely wife made, and roots beer floats. Now that's a birthday meal!
After my family all left I got back to work and made two more pendants and a pair of earrings. I'll put up some pictures when I get a chance (I have to take some pictures that actually look good. Y'know).
On Saturday morning we drove up to Gig Harbor to submit our stuff for TideFest jurying. I submitted (shocking) the pendants that I'd made!
I'm getting sleepy now. I'll write more later.
The next day I hunted around for a glass cutter (which are also kinda hard to find). Once I found one I tried to make some pendants on my own and failed utterly, due to the fact that I had the wrong kind of flux (but it wasn't my fault; I stole the flux from Carrie to begin with). It was very, very frustrating, as I had a very firm deadline of having to be finished with everything by Saturday (you'll learn why a bit further down).
So the next day I went back and talked to Michelle, and she sent me down to Mandarin Glass in Lakewood to buy flux. This is where I had already been to buy the copper foil tape (and where I had gone in search of microscope slides). They did not have the same type of flux that Michelle used, but I bought some anyway because it was only five bucks down the tube if it didn't work.
It did. If anything, it worked better than what I'd been trained on. And I created a really good pendant.
That same day (we're on Friday now if you've lost track) in the evening my whole family came over along with Jason and Alexis, and all nine of us went to Sakura for din-dins. Sakura is one of them Benihana-style restaurants where you sit around a big grill plate and they cook the food in front of you and toss the knives around a little bit. It's a good show, and the whole family could sit around one grill, so it was a good choice. Also it's pretty durned tasty, especially the pink fish/wine sauce stuff. If they bottled and sold that, Carrie would eat it all of the time. Since it was my birthday I got surf & turf -- steak & lobster. Durned tasty, I tells ya.
After dinner we came back to the house where I opened presents. Mostly money (which is good), some movie gift certificates from Susan, my brother gave me a tonne of Earthbound/Mother music (which is really cool), and me mum gave me a pretty big gift:
He's fully 12" tall, and is probably more complicated to transform than my 12" Unicron action figure. But he looks durned cool, and he comes with a little Matrix that lights up when you put it in his chest. After that there were cupcakes that my lovely wife made, and roots beer floats. Now that's a birthday meal!
After my family all left I got back to work and made two more pendants and a pair of earrings. I'll put up some pictures when I get a chance (I have to take some pictures that actually look good. Y'know).
On Saturday morning we drove up to Gig Harbor to submit our stuff for TideFest jurying. I submitted (shocking) the pendants that I'd made!
I'm getting sleepy now. I'll write more later.
Labels: Life
posted by Christopher at 11:29 PM
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Somebody Left This at My Party
It's got a ton of games, including Electroplankton. So if'n it's yers, lemme know and I'll give it back to you. Otherwise I'm keepin' it! Happy birthday to ME!Labels: Pictures
posted by Christopher at 11:03 PM
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Sunday, May 06, 2007
Today = My 30th Birthday
Hooray! I'm an old man today!
The past few days have been pretty crazy, so I'll write all about them tomorrow, when it isn't my birthday. For now I'm just gonna enjoy!
Happy birthday also to the Geoff!
The past few days have been pretty crazy, so I'll write all about them tomorrow, when it isn't my birthday. For now I'm just gonna enjoy!
Happy birthday also to the Geoff!
Labels: Updates
posted by Christopher at 9:16 AM
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Wednesday, May 02, 2007
You Can't Just Buy Microscope Slides
Did you know that it's basically impossible to just go somewhere and buy microscope slides? You have to order them from somewhere. That's what I learned yesterday (Tuesday).
After work I got Carrie and she made a really yummy pasta with Amsterdam cheese sauce. Then I took her back to work and went on a quest for my new craft skill. I ended up not finding any microscope slides after a rather exhaustive search, so when I came back home I ordered some from teh intarwebs. I then watched Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. The reviews I heard about that film are pretty much spot-on. It's not bad, it's got some funny moments, but it's rarely laugh-out-loud material, and it just kinda... happens. Nowhere near the caliber of Nacho Libré or School of Rock.
Carrie stayed at work late, until 7:00. After I went and got her I made us some din-dins. We'd eaten nothing but cheese since Carrie got back from Amsterdam, so we took a break and made a non-dairy meal: Potstickers with mixed vegetable melange.
There was a new episode of Veronica Mars on in the evening! Hooray! It had some very funny bits, and for once Carrie did not have a class on Tuesday afternoon so she actually got to watch it! Awexome!
After work I got Carrie and she made a really yummy pasta with Amsterdam cheese sauce. Then I took her back to work and went on a quest for my new craft skill. I ended up not finding any microscope slides after a rather exhaustive search, so when I came back home I ordered some from teh intarwebs. I then watched Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. The reviews I heard about that film are pretty much spot-on. It's not bad, it's got some funny moments, but it's rarely laugh-out-loud material, and it just kinda... happens. Nowhere near the caliber of Nacho Libré or School of Rock.
Carrie stayed at work late, until 7:00. After I went and got her I made us some din-dins. We'd eaten nothing but cheese since Carrie got back from Amsterdam, so we took a break and made a non-dairy meal: Potstickers with mixed vegetable melange.
There was a new episode of Veronica Mars on in the evening! Hooray! It had some very funny bits, and for once Carrie did not have a class on Tuesday afternoon so she actually got to watch it! Awexome!
posted by Christopher at 8:23 AM
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Tuesday, May 01, 2007
"Of the Month" May '07
Link of the Month:
1ROM.net
Gasp! A website that actually has rom downloads for almost all of the major consoles and handhelds? In this day and age of the cease-and-desist letter and the threatened lawsuit! Jeez, you'd better get over there and grab as many as you can before this place gets shut down! For realz!
DVD of the Month:
Pan's Labyrinth
I am a bit shocked that this did not win the best foreign film Oscar. Similar in tone and setting to Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone, this one far surpasses it in intriguing imagery and some genuine shock value. This is a fairy tale that is not at all for children.
Album of the Month:
The Wastelanders: BlackHearted American Water
After many years, The Wastelanders have put out their sophomore effort. Having evolved over the ensuing years from a stripped-down country punk trio into a full-on-dirty-southern-rock-garage-sounding quartet (with the addition of an extra guitar), this album is 11 tracks of growling, screeching, shouting, wailing good times.
1ROM.netGasp! A website that actually has rom downloads for almost all of the major consoles and handhelds? In this day and age of the cease-and-desist letter and the threatened lawsuit! Jeez, you'd better get over there and grab as many as you can before this place gets shut down! For realz!
DVD of the Month:
Pan's LabyrinthI am a bit shocked that this did not win the best foreign film Oscar. Similar in tone and setting to Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone, this one far surpasses it in intriguing imagery and some genuine shock value. This is a fairy tale that is not at all for children.
Album of the Month:
The Wastelanders: BlackHearted American WaterAfter many years, The Wastelanders have put out their sophomore effort. Having evolved over the ensuing years from a stripped-down country punk trio into a full-on-dirty-southern-rock-garage-sounding quartet (with the addition of an extra guitar), this album is 11 tracks of growling, screeching, shouting, wailing good times.
Labels: Of the Month
posted by Christopher at 7:44 AM
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